Independent editor imprisoned in Kazakhstan

New
York, January 26, 2012--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns today's
court ruling against Igor Vinyavsky, editor of the
independent weekly Vzglyad, and calls
for his immediate release.

The
Almalinsky District Court in the city of Almaty indicted Vinyavsky on criminal charges
of "making public calls to violently overthrow Kazakhstan's constitutional
regime," and ordered his pretrial imprisonment for two months, news reports said. The Kazakh
security service, or KNB, detained Vinyavsky on Monday after KNB agents raided
his apartment as well as Vzglyad's
offices, and confiscated all computers and reporting equipment, the weekly's
staff told CPJ. The KNB opened a criminal case against Vinyavsky on the same day.

In
April 2010, Almaty police confiscated a number of leaflets that investigators
said had been authored by Vinyavsky, according to news reports. News accounts
also reported that the leaflets included a photograph of Kazakh President
Nursultan Nazarbayev with the caption: "Kyrgyzstan got rid of the robbing
family of [ousted President Kurmanbek] Bakiyev. Enough tolerating, take [him]
to the dumpster!"

Local
newspapers reported that the charges against the editor were not backed by any
evidence. In addition, the charges against the editor did not clarify how the
investigators had established Vinyavksy's authorship of the leaflets and did
not explain why the editor was being charged with committing a crime through
mass media, independent newspaper Respublika
reported.

"We
call on Kazakh authorities to release Igor Vinyavsky immediately and scrap the
case against him," CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina
Ognianova said. "The KNB charges against the editor are baseless."